21:suppl (2006:summer) Committee Annual Reports: PPC

July 1, 2006 at 6:05 pm | Posted in Committee Annual Reports, Program Planning | Leave a comment

PROGRAM PLANNING COMMITTEE
Rachel Frick, June Garner, and Tonia Graves, Co-Chairs 

SUMMARY OF CONFERENCE PROGRAM
The Program Planning Committee finalized the program featuring 33 sessions involving 57 speakers.  In addition, four Special Program Events are scheduled that reflect the diversity of NASIG’s membership and interests.  By the close of conference registration on 04/21/06, the final program inspired 610 individuals to register.  Of these 610 registrants, 498 (82%) are NASIG members and 112 (18%) are not NASIG members.  Note that the figure of 610 may increase when onsite conference registration begins.  

Program Proposals  

Number of ideas/programs reviewed from brainstorming, quick and dirty evaluations, and two calls (total)	2006     102
Quick and dirty evaluations	30
Brainstorming	25
Proposals from 1st call	40 *(call closed 09/012005)
Proposals from 2nd call	7 *(call closed 11/04/2005)
Number of ideas/programs selected (total)	33
Pre-conferences	4 *(2 full day and 2 half day)
Vision	3
Strategy	10
Tactics	16
Number of speakers (total)	57
Pre-conferences	6
Vision	3
Strategy	22
Tactics	26

   Special Program Events:

Informal Discussion Groups	9 sessions, 13 facilitators
User Group Lunches	7 sessions, 11 facilitators
Poster Session	On display 5/5/06 from 9:30-5:30 and staffed during both breaks, 10 posters, 12 presenters
Focused Vendor Demo Session	1 session, 4 presenters, 1 moderator
Number of programs (total)	26
Number of presenters (total)	37

Based on comments from the 2005 conference evaluations regarding “too much overlap between strategy and tactics sets”, PPC has successfully presented a “no-conflict” schedule for the 2006 conference.  With few exceptions, both strategy and tactics will be presented twice.   

Also, based on comments from the 2005 conference evaluations regarding the Focused Vendor Demo session being held too late in the day and during one of the conference’s last scheduled session, PPC has successfully moved the Focused Vendor Demo session to a session that is earlier in the day and earlier in the conference.   

This was the second consecutive year that PPC has used a web-based program proposal submission form that was automatically submitted PPC co-chairs.   There were no issues with lost proposals.

SPECIAL PROGRAM EVENTS
The Poster Sessions Subcommittee consisting of Michael Arthur, Allison Sleeman, Erika Ripley, Mary Grenci, Bonnie Parks, and June Garner (co-chair) sent out the call, selected, advertised, and coordinated 10 Poster Sessions out of 19 submissions.  Poster sessions provide an opportunity to share innovative ideas and new applications of technology.  Posters will be on display in the conference registration area of the Denver Marriott City Center on Friday, May 5th, from 9:30-5:30.  Presenters will be available to discuss their topics during both break periods.  Posters this year include: 

• Steven A. Knowlton, “Continuing Use of Print-Only Information by Researchers: A Study of Impact Factor as One Measure, 1993-2003” 
• Athena Hoeppner, “What’s It Worth? Coursepack Permissions in E-journal Licenses”
• JoAnne Deeken, “Connecting Your ILS with an Outside Accounting System”
• Jonathan David Makepeace, “A to Z List vs. Catalogue Access to E-serial Titles at the University of Windsor”
• Susanne Clement, “To Renew or not to Renew Databases – That is the Question: A Practical Approach to Collecting and Disseminating Electronic Usage Statistics as a Tool for Collection Development”
• Gary Ives, “Indexing Lag Time Between Current Contents and Web of Science”
• Dianne Gordon Conyers, “Through the Looking Glass: Content, Integration and Access – Staff Workflows and Client Pathways”
• Sarah Sutton and Christine Freeman, “Rising Journal Costs: Comparing Local Collections to the National Average”
• Timothy Skeers, “You Can See Forever: Archiving New Mexico Digital Serials for the Future”
• Michaelyn Haslam and Xiaoyin Zhang, “Adding Vendor Subscription Format Data to Library Systems to Aid in Finding Subscription Format Discrepancies”

The Informal Discussion Group Subcommittee consisting of Mary Grenci, June Garner, Jenni Wilson, and Rachel Frick (co-chair) sent out the call, selected, advertised, and coordinated 9 separate topical meetings out of 12 submissions.  Informal Discussion Groups (formerly Networking Nodes) are scheduled during lunch on Saturday, May 6th, 12:00-1:00pm.  The purpose of these discussion groups is to promote interaction among conference attendees who have a shared interest in a topic, idea, workflow, or problem. Each group discusses a broad topic.  Each discussion is guided, but not designed, by a facilitator.  Topics for Informal Discussion Groups include:

• Link Resolvers: To Buy or Not To Buy
• The Other Journal Use Data – Working with Use Data for Journals You Don’t Subscribe To
• Digitized Journal Backfiles: What is their Value?
• Preservation
• The Challenges of Implementing a MARC Record Service
• Other Than Academics
• Full Text Journals: Alone or in Aggregate Services. What Services and Functions We Like and What We Need
• Mapping Access Limits and License Terms to ERMS.

The User Group subcommittee consisting of Mary Grenci, June Garner, Jenni Wilson, and Rachel Frick (co-chair) sent out the call, selected, advertised, and coordinated 7 User Group Lunches out of 9 submissions.  User Group Lunches will take place on Saturday, May 6th, 12:00-1:00pm. User Group Lunches provide an opportunity for people to come together and discuss product implementation, identify challenges and successes, and meet with colleagues in a non-commercial setting.  Topics for User Group Lunches include: 

• Serials Solutions
• SIRSI/Dynix
• Innovative
• SFX
• SCCTP
• Endeavor
• MARCit.

The Focused Vendor Demo Subcommittee consisting of Norene Allen, Lee Krieger, Janice Lindquist, Joe Harmon, and Tonia Graves (co-chair) developed a session theme, contacted potential participants, planned the session, and coordinated information distribution.  Four of 6 vendors contacted agreed to participate in this event which is NASIG’s third time hosting such a session.  The topic for NASIG’s third annual Focused Vendor Demo is subscription vendor services to libraries.  For the purposes of this vendor demo, we will see what each vendor has developed to:  1) integrate electronic into the existing workflow 2) serve the new needs of electronic subscriptions. 

The Focused Vendor Demo is scheduled for Friday 5/5/06 from 2:00-3:30.  Each vendor has approximately 15 – 20 minutes to describe their services.  There will be a Q&A component.  Jill Emery will serve as moderator.  Participating vendors include:

• Basch Subscriptions, Inc.
• Ebsco Information Services
• Harrassowitz
• Swets Information Services. 

NARRATIVE OF PPC ACTIVITIES SINCE JANUARY 2006
PPC members received assignments to act as PPC Liaisons for speakers.  Liaison responsibilities included sending speakers their official notification of acceptance, informing speakers of their reimbursement and audio-visual equipment options and conference and proceedings responsibilities, gathering biographical information, distributing handout information and receiving handouts to be used during the conference.  They also informed selected speakers of their hotel confirmation numbers and answered numerous miscellaneous questions.  PPC members managed an average of four speakers each.     

PPC co-chairs worked with the Conference Evaluation Review Task Force to identify changes to the Evaluation Form that has been used for the past several years and then with the Evaluation & Assessment Committee to finalize the conference survey.  PPC co-chairs also worked with the Proceedings Editors to help them contact speakers and coordinate receipt of papers from Vision and Strategy speakers.

Other activities include:

• Asked NASIG Secretary, Elizabeth Parang, to send rejection letters for unaccepted proposals
• Sent official letters of proposal acceptance to speakers via email.
• Submitted PPC report for May 2006 newsletter
• Posted to NASIG-L and RSS feed
• Called for volunteers to introduce speakers
• Coordinated hotel registrations, airline reservations, conference registrations, and av/handout information
• Managed unexpected speaker changes

OTHER
AV expenses continue to be a concern.  This year, CPC was able to send the AV contract out for bids, and we hope this will positively affect future PPC work on AV and allow for more options.  Still to be solved is the prohibitively expensive cost of Internet connections for speakers.  

PPC, in addition to a Board Liaison, should also have a consultant or advisor appointed.  A past PPC chair to help guide and be an impartial voice would be ideal.  

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The PPC Co-Chairs would like to thank the entire committee for their flexibility and hard work.  The following people served on PPC during a hectically short conference planning year and helped create the 2006 conference: Norene Allen, Michael Arthur, Stephen Clark, Sarah George, Mary Grenci, Joe Harmon, Lee Krieger, Janice Lindquist, Bonnie Parks, Erika Ripley, Allison Sleeman, and Jenni Wilson.  Special mention goes to Sarah George, our liaison to the Online Registration Team.  We also owe a huge thanks to our Board liaison, Denise Novak, and the PPC guru Marilyn Geller.  It is our firm belief that these are precisely the people who make NASIG such a superlative organization, and we commend every one of them for work we have all accomplished together.